First Army Division East mobilizes, trains, validates and deploys Provincial Reconstruction Teams to Afghanistan. PRTs are a multi-component, joint interagency organization consisting of military personnel, civilian advisers and representatives from government agencies. Members support reconstruction efforts and empower local governments to operate more effectively. PRT members train under theater specific conditions to provide security, support and assistance to reconstruction efforts in country.

What has First Army done?

PRT personnel begin their training well before arrival at the mobilization station. In concert with First Army Division East and their lead training element, the 189th IN BDE, PRT members schedule and conduct individual and specialty training at various venues throughout the United States.
Senior leaders participate in a pre-deployment site survey in Afghanistan to meet local leaders and observe current PRT operations. The latest lessons learned and best practices are incorporated into their collective training. Upon arrival at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, Air Force and Navy personnel are indoctrinated into the Army, learn Army staffing systems and procedures, and receive basic combat training to include weapons qualification, convoy procedures, counterinsurgency and counter-improvised explosive device. Later, civilian agency team members arrive and join their military counterparts to undergo civil-military operations training, combat and theater-specific training. Basic combat skills and technical instruction is integrated into numerous situational training exercises and command post exercises.

Teams also undergo sustainment training and employ the Tactical Conflict Assessment Planning Framework to hone their ability to understand and put in place development solutions. Training concludes with a culminating training exercise which immerses the team in an operational environment that tests their ability to analyze, stabilize and provide the way forward in reconstruction and empowerment of local governments.

What continued efforts does the Army have planned for the future?

The 189th IN BDE utilizes role players to enhance training and plans to continue to expand this practice by including Afghanistan National Security Forces and civilian interagency personnel as trainers and training participants to provide the most current, realistic and challenging training possible.

Why is this important to the Army?

A major step forward in ensuring mission success is bringing the PRTs together before deploying and having all departments integrate with their military counterparts under a theater specific environment. As efforts continue to stabilize, secure, reconstruct and develop Afghanistan, the PRTs mission will remain most critical and a key component to securing and sustaining a self-functioning democracy.

SENIOR LEADERS ARE SAYING

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING

"This is not a magic bullet. This is not something that I am going to be able to sit there and teach the Soldiers in 28.5 hours and turn around and everything is going to be perfect in their unit…it's going to give the Soldiers a better idea on how to handle stressors. And as they develop the skills and use them in their lives, the more resilient they'll become, and maybe three, four, five years down the road, we'll actually see a large decrease in hopefully domestic violence, drug abuse, sexual assault and other problems."

- Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Stoner, while believing that resiliency is "the ability to have a positive outcome from negative situations," gives a realistic view of the immediate impact of the Master resiliency Training

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